Towards a digitalize economy: The Impact of Training on the Performance of Public Sector IT firms in Africa

Abstract

Research background: The widespread adoption of technological advances, such as ICT-enabled infrastructure is becoming the new norm for most African countries. The quest to achieve a digitalized Africa has fuelled public sector IT firms to embark on staff training to enhance their productivity. Purpose of the article: The present study seeks to examine the influence of such training on public sector IT performance. Methods: The study uses 70 employees from the public sector IT firm, sampled from LinkedIn professional platform. Primary source of data; mainly the questionnaire was used to gather responses. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the gathered data. Using the correlation coefficient, regression, independent and paired sample test, hypotheses were tested. Findings & Value added: The paired sample t test revealed that after training, there was a significant difference in the scores of the IT firm productivity PRO1 (M = 19.97, SD = 1.88) and PRO2 (M = 21.77, SD = 1.94), t (-5.00) = 69, p < 0.05. There is no significant difference in the scores of male staff (M = 21.80, SD = 1.93) from those of the female staff (M = 21.70, SD = 1.98), t (1.95) = 68, p = 0.846 as indicated by the independent sample t test. The relationship between training organizational performance is positive (r= 0.52, n= 70, p < 0.05) while the regression technique shows a positive effect (b= 0.19, p < 5%) between staff training and IT firm productivity.